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A display of soles for victims of HIV/AIDS
Liz Clarke. The Star. 21 April 2003. Republished courtesy of Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd.
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Six hundred pairs of shoes belonging to people who have died of HIV/AIDS, many of them children, are to be a stark reminder of those dying daily from AIDS-related diseases in South Africa.
The shoes will be placed outside the South African consulate in Los Angeles on World AIDS Action Day on Thursday, and visitors will be encouraged to file past them in silence.
Deborah Baron, a spokesperson for Artists for a New South Africa and the Black AIDS Institute, said this would serve as a poignant message.
The shoe display is just one of the international events marking a call for action on HIV and AIDS, and nowhere will the protest be more evident than in South Africa, which is at the epicentre of the disease.
Nathan Geffen, spokesperson for the Treatment Action Campaign, said the day of action would focus on the departments of health and of trade and industry.
"There will be sit-ins at both these departments in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg as well as public demonstrations in East London and Nelspruit."
This will be followed on May 5 and 6 with health workers' days of action throughout the country, with demands for a signing of a national treatment plan in accordance with the National Economic Development and Labour Council agreement. Further demands are for a commitment to anti-retroviral treatment and investment in the public health sector.
The TAC's tough stance comes in sharp contrast to its message of one year ago, when it "unilaterally" supported the cabinet's expanded policy on HIV/AIDS.
The TAC said then it recognised that HIV prevention strategies would be strengthened by a commitment to the right of all people to have HIV-related opportunistic infections treated, and a recognition of the effectiveness of anti-retroviral treatment.
In a recent statement, the TAC said: "One year later, approximately 200 000 more people in South Africa have died of HIV/AIDS, including many TAC leaders and volunteers.
"Government research has confirmed that HIV is the leading cause of death among women between the ages of 15 and 39, and of maternal mortality, and is a major factor exacerbating poverty.
"We are therefore angry and disappointed that, despite these uncontroverted facts, in key areas of the promise of April 17 2002 there has been no progress."
Other HIV/AIDS action events for Thursday include a meeting with South African ambassadors in Belgium, demonstrations at the South African high commission in Nairobi, a march to the South African embassy in the Netherlands, and pickets at the South African embassy in Washington. |
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